


Mix Tape

by stanchezsloppyseconds



Category: Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Short One Shot, short but sweet, silly romantic old men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 17:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9774077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stanchezsloppyseconds/pseuds/stanchezsloppyseconds
Summary: Stan finds an old road trip mixtape of Spanish songs that Rick made when they were young, but now that he's older and fluent in Spanish he's surprised to find out what those familiar old songs really said. Another one from the pages of my novel length list of headcanons on how Rick Sanchez is secretly a hopeless romantic deep down under all those thick layers of denial and scientific claims of how feelings are just chemical reactions and therefor not important.





	

Keys slipping from his hand, Stan cursed softly as they fell between the car seats. Reaching awkwardly down the crevasse of the leather interior he fumbled for a moment, blindly feeling around. Fingers finding something solid, he pulled it up triumphantly only to frown at the cassette tape he held. Turning it over puzzled, there was a small sticker label, worn from the years and stained, but still covered in the unmistakable chicken scratch of Rick’s handwriting.

 "Well I’ll be damned-“ Stan chuckled to himself as he studied the tape. He hadn’t seen or heard that tape since the seventies. Back then Stanley had made several mix tapes of his favourite songs for driving on the cross state highways with his partner in crime at his side, but only once had Rick ever made a tape for him. Rick had claimed it was because he was so sick of Stan’s rotten taste in music that he’d had to make a tape just so the driving was bearable. Curiosity getting the better of him, Stan promptly forgot to keep hunting for his keys and instead popped the cassette into the car’s stereo. It took a couple minutes to rewind, but eventually with a slight hissing pop the tape played. As the old familiar guitar of the first track started, he kicked back the driver seat and leaned into the memory of a hot desert night spent driving through Nevada. As the lyrics started Stan could nearly hear Rick’s off pitch voice crooning along- yet something odd struck him as he was pulled out of the memory back to the present.

 In seventy eight when Rick had made the tape, Stan and him had been at the peak of their haydays, robbing the gullible blind with every latest con in the books as they steadily made their crooked fortune at the price of being chased out of every state they’d been to. They’d been on their way south, to New Mexico, and eventually a year later would make their way down as far as Colombia. That was where they’d had some of their wildest times. It was also where they’d split up, leaving Stan heartbroken and locked away behind bars. The two year stint in Colombia was the fullest of any of his prison sentences he’d served before breaking out. Prior to that however, during those Nevada roadtrip nights in the heavy blanket of heat with Rick in the passenger side, no seatbelt, boots kicked up on the dash and singing along to the cassette tape- back then Stan had barely spoken a word of Spanish.

 Two years in Colombia had changed that. Add decades more of under the table cross border smuggling contraband deals, and close to twenty odd years of raising Soos Ramerez, and Stanley Pines had become rather fluent in the language. So when the old words he’d never paid mind to as a young man suddenly made sense, it struck Stanley as peculiar that the first song on the mixtape was in fact quiet obviously a very sappy love song.

 Sure, by seventy eight Rick and him had been years deep into their criminal partnership as well as their sexual relationship… but they had never been the type to be overly romantic. Words like love were never uttered between them. Even now, a lifetime later and rekindled flame roaring like a blazing inferno, they still avoided that sort of thing most of the time.

 It wasn’t like Stan didn’t know Rick loved him. He had no doubt in his mind of that nowadays. Back in seventy eight though? Things had been different then and Stan had been a far more insecure and self loathing man than he was today. So to hear a song that so clearly belonged to the pages of that part of his life story- to hear it properly for the first time, and realize how forsakenly sappy it was, left him quickly pushing the fast forward, convinced it was some sort of error. Perhaps the ballad had just been popular at the time and Rick had liked the tune, so he’d put it on the tape? The rest surely wouldn’t… except once he found the second track Stan was choking back a bitter laugh at how this one was perhaps even worse.

 Sitting in the car, seat back, parked in the store lot with a bag of groceries beside him in the passenger seat, Stanley Pines listened to a dozen songs total, front and back. Every song was in Spanish. Every song was a passionately cliché tribute to being in love. Once it was finished, the tape ejected and Stan looked it over as if expecting the handwriting to have changed. Yet the familiar childish scribbles of his boyfriend’s lettering still spelled out undeniably “Mix for Lee”. Tossing the tape in with the groceries, Stan finally dug back into the seat for his keys and headed back to the Mystery Shack.

“B- about time you got back with- with the snacks” Rick greeted with a sneer. He gave Stan’s cheek a rough peck before digging into the bag that Stan was still carrying. Eager hands snatched up the boxed cookies he had picked up on Rick’s request. “What took ya’ so -urrp- looong anyways, Babe? Forget your favourite kinda chips a-again?”

 The question was casual and teasing enough, but Stan couldn’t help but note the fact there might have been a tad bit of concern behind it. He had taken much longer than usual to get groceries, and while the last two months had been relatively relapse free, Rick was still a bit cautious about Stan’s memory problems given it hadn’t been that long ago he’d shown up on the Shack doorstep to find Stan didn’t remember him at all.

 “Nah, just took a detour trip down memory lane actually.” Stan chuckled softly as he unloaded the groceries before pulling out the old cassette.

 At first glance Rick just shrugged and dismissed it, before a double take made him pause. There was a triumphant grin on Stan’s face as that look of recognition hit Rick. Just last week, Stan had caught Rick off guard when mid fight he’d replied to one of Rick’s Spanish quips without missing a beat. To be honest Stan had forgotten in the heat of that moment that he’d kept Rick out of the loop on his fluency in the language. Once that gato was out of the bag, Rick had been horrified to realize that Stan not only was completely fluent, but also recalled a fair number of occasions over the past few decades when his Latino lover had used his native language to hide the sappy things he didn’t want Stan to understand him saying. It figured that once Rick had finally gotten over that colossal embarrassment, and had firmly decided to stick to only confessing his emotions in alien languages from now on, that Stan would magically produce the one piece of Spanish evidence that Rick had been hopelessly in love with him for longer than Stan had likely ever known.

 “Wh-what the hell wormhole did th-that fall out of?” Rick quipped as he plucked the tape from Stan’s hand. “Probably d-doesn’t even work anymore- you uh- did-didn’t listen to it did you?”

 The answer to that question was clearly written across the smug smirk Stan wore.

 “Mierda. Sta-stop looking so damn proud of yourself, Lee. I wa-was y-young and-”

 “-y en el amor?” Stan finished for him still wearing that look like he’d just won big at the casino.

 “Not ah-as smart as I am now” Rick finished bitterly. His glare was simmering enough to burn most anyone to ash, but only bolstered the other man’s confidence all the more.

 “I thought maybe we could give it a listen together later?” A quirked eyebrow suggested listening wouldn’t be all they’d be doing, but didn’t seem to sweeten the deal enough to convince Rick.

 “Pfft- liiike hell we are I’m disinter-grate-grating this- this damned thing before it ma-makes your ego any bigger.” Rick scoffed though when he glance back down at the tape in his hands it had been replaced with a cookie. A cheerful whistle came from Stanley as he walked out of the kitchen with the cassette in hand. “Damn it Lee, ge-get back here!” Rick yelped as he scrambled after the conman who was now singing one of the mix tape’s songs loudly down the hallway.


End file.
